Silver Teapots and Pressed Roses
by Northern-Southern Belle
Summary: While sorting things in the house she inherited from her grandma Decker, Chloe finds a box of things her grandmother left for her. She shows a couple things to Lucifer including a tarnished tea set she always wanted to use. Lucifer shines everything up and plots with Trixie in secret to throw Chloe a surprise tea party just like her grandmother always wanted. One shot.


**Only the plot and any original characters belong to me!**

"Here you are, Chloe," Lucifer said as he poked his head through the attic door and sneezed. "I dropped your daughter off at school. You can't hold me responsible for anything she might do after."

Chloe turned and chuckled. "As long as you didn't put ideas into her head, I suppose I can't."

Lucifer huffed and sat on an old trunk, looking indignant. "Why do people always assume that I do that?"

"Cause it's not entirely wrong," Chloe told him. "Can you at least admit that?"

Not knowing how to respond to that, Lucifer looked around the attic. "So...where are we, exactly? From the looks of of the furniture downstairs, I would guess this is the house of a very fussy old lady."

"Well, it does belong to an old lady," Chloe nodded. "You're right about that. Or at least it did. This was my dad's parents' house and...Grandma said she wanted to keep it in the family and I agreed to take possession after she died."

"Oh, dear me," Lucifer sighed. "I apologize. I don't mean to make light of it if your grandmother just died."

"Thank you," Chloe gave him a small smile. "I mean, it's not like it happened yesterday and it wasn't sudden like...like it was with my dad, but...it was recent enough. Heart attack in her sleep. At least she didn't suffer. And I think...I think she had a good life."

Chloe sniffled and Lucifer handed her a handkerchief out of his jacket pocket. "Thank you," she said and took a breath. "I needed that." She then smiled, taking his hand and leading him around.

"So many memories here," she pointed out. "Grandma never let go of anything."

Liking the fact that she was smiling again, Lucifer decided he wanted it to continue. "What was your favorite memory of her?"

"Oh, so many," she grinned, then paused by one of the many chests and boxes that filled the attic. This one said Chloe in very obvious bold black lettering. "This is all the stuff of hers that reminded me of her. I told her so and one day we went up here and put it all in a box so that I'd have it to remember her by."

"Well, what's in it?" Lucifer questioned. "Let's see!" Then he paused, having the grace to blush a little. "I mean, if you want to. If it's not too personal."

"Until I met you, that's what I would have said," Chloe told him. "My relationship with my grandmother was a very special thing. She was the one person I felt I could tell anything to, especially after Dad died. And...the thought of letting someone in on that..it always scared me, but...I feel like I can tell you."

"Only if you want to," Lucifer said firmly."I promise."

"I want to," Chloe nodded. "I swear. Would you help me open this? It's a little old and sometimes the lid gets stuck."

So they worked together to get the lid off and Chloe began gently removing things and handing them to him until she found something special enough to share.

"A book?" Lucier asked and opened it to see pages and pages of different colors of pressed flowers. "What is this? Where did all these flowers come from?"

"Well, judging by the weight of the album I would say its every flower Grandpa Decker ever gave her, but she loved flowers and she thought this would be a good way to save some so that she could always have some color."

"Oh, how nice," Lucifer grinned. "That's very nice."

"I'm going to put it out so people can look at it," Chloe decided as she found herself staring at some red roses. "Something this pretty shouldn't be locked in a dusty attic."

"Would you mind if I picked an item next?" Lucifer wanted to know. "I feel honored that you chose me to share something so special with and I don't want to take it too far."

"Well there's a first," Chloe got out with a grin. "Sure, go and ahead and pick something. I don't think there are too many breakable things in there."

Lucifer rummaged through the chest, gently setting smaller items aside until he reached the bottom.

"Nothing caught your eye?" Chloe questioned and then pointed to another box labeled Chloe's tea set. What about that? You might be interested to see that."

"A toy?" Lucifer asked skeptically. "Why?"

"It's not a toy," Chloe told him and took him over to open the box, which turned out to contain a badly tarnished full silver tea set. "It's real and it's old. It's been passed down for ages. I know she didn't say so because she didn't want me to feel pressured but I think she would have been very disappointed if I'd declined to take it."

"It definitely needs cleaning but I bet it'll be quite nice once it's been shined up a bit," Lucifer remarked. "Are you and your daughter going to use it?"

"I think at least once," Chloe told him. "Trixie's specifically requested it."

"Yes," Lucifer grinned as he turned the teapot over in his hands. "I bet she has."

It took some time but eventually they got everything downstairs. When Chloe realized just how many parts had been wrapped and settled in the bottom of the chest, she ran a hand through her hair. "There's so much," she sighed. "Getting everything cleaned up and shiny will take ages and I don't know if I have that kind of time."

"I do," Lucifer volunteered. "And lots of silver polish. If you wanted, you could leave the whole set with me and I'd have it all shined up quicker than you can blink. But I know this is a family valuable so feel free to say 'No'."

"Well...I know you'll handle it with care and I don't know the best way of polishing silver so...sure, why not? You can take it and get it all cleaned up."

"Excellent," Lucifer grinned. "And I might have my appraiser take a look at it so we can get it insured. Wouldn't want anything bad to happen to it."

"Yeah, that's...that's a really good idea," Chloe nodded. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Lucifer nodded and gave her a grin. "My pleasure."

* * *

**You are invited to a tea party! Wear your fanciest clothes to Grandma's house and be in the dining room at 3 PM sharp this Saturday.**

This was the note that Chloe found taped to her bedroom door when she got back from work the following Thursday.

"Trixie, what's this?" She asked her daughter after stopping by Trixie's bedroom. "Do you know anything about it?"

"Yes I do," Trixie nodded as she combed her doll's hair. "It's a surprise though. I can't tell you any more until Saturday so don't ask. But it'll be a good time, I swear." Then she looked up. "You do have a nice dress, don't you? Cause Lucifer and I are serious about it being fancy."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Chloe assured her. "I'm sure I can find something."

She then left her daughter and went to her closet to see if it was true. There wasn't much, she had to admit. She could do with more fancy restaurant clothes in her wardrobe, or at the very least one more dress or two.

Finally, at the back of the closet, she found a red dress hanging. It wasn't anything fancy. Rather plain with no real embellishment. But she supposed that a necklace and some earrings would give it some excitement. She hung it up, added the matching jewelry, and then waited for Saturday, intrigued by what Lucifer and her daughter had up their sleeves.

Chloe showered and dressed her nicest even though she figured it would be a goofy fun little thing in spite of the black tie notice on the invitation. After her hair was done and her make-up was applied, she winced at the red dress in the mirror. It was so plain...so dull...even with the jewelry. But there was no time to change. She'd have to just go as she was and hope she looked all right.

* * *

She got in her car and drove to her grandmother's house. Lucifer's car was in the driveway so she was definitely in the right place, but when she went inside, everything was quiet. The place seemed abandoned.

"I'm here for the tea party!" She called. "Are you? Anyone? This isn't a trick, is it?" She was about to remove her coat when, out of the silence, she suddenly heard Lucifer's smooth voice.

"Of course not," he said as she turned around. Then, with a grin, he asked, "May I take your coat? We can hang it up all nice in the closet."

"Oh, you don't have to handle it with kid gloves," Chloe shrugged as he removed it. "It's just my old leather one. The first one I could find since I headed out a little late."

"Well, the point is you're here now," He smiled and took her hand. "Now shut your eyes. This part is a surprise."

With her free hand, she reached up and closed her fingers around the bullet necklace he'd given her for her birthday. His surprises weren't always the good kind, but she had a sense that this one was.

When he told her to open them again, she gasped. Her grandmother's parlor was clean, and there was a table set out with snacks...and her grandmother's silver tea set, all shiny and new, looking like it had just been bought.

"Oh, my..." she felt herself began to cry. "You did it. You really did it. You shined it all up! Lucifer, thank you! That must've been so much work!"

"Don't even think about it," Lucifer implored. "It was my pleasure to do something nice for you." He handed her a pink rose. "And may this be the beginning of your own pressed flower book. I put the other one over there."

Chloe smiled and hugged him, then turned at the sound of her daughter's voice.

"It wasn't much trouble," Trixie told her. She wore a pink dress and had a little tiara settled on her head. She wasn't usually that fancy, but maybe she was really going with the theme of the party. "Now, you want tea? Lucifer will have to pour the water for you because I don't want to get burned."

"Sure," Chloe nodded and gave her daughter a smile. "Thank you. And can I have a little cake and a sandwich?"

"Sure," Trixie grinned and passed her the plates. "I can give you those. The cucumber ones are really good!"

"I'll have to give one a try then," Chloe smiled as Lucifer filled her tea cup with hot water and gave her an apple cinnamon tea bag.

"Thank you so much for this, both of you," she told them, cup in hand while she waited for the tea to cool. "This is the best surprise I could ever ask for."

"Well, it was your daughter's idea," Lucifer grinned. "You can thank her."

"Actually it was both of ours," Trixie corrected. "We thought it would make you happy to use Grandma's tea set finally."

"Yeah," Chloe nodded, her eye catching a picture of her grandmother as both Lucifer and Chloe put their arms around her. "Yeah, it really does."

**The End**


End file.
